Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said her Democratic Senate primary race was “a racist race” in an interview published Wednesday and argued she didn’t need to campaign with her former opponent and the party’s nominee, James Talarico.
Crockett said at the Essence Festival alongside the hosts of the “Native Land” podcast that the best thing she could do for former primary foe Talarico was to endorse Black candidates down ballot so more Black voters turn out in November.
“The best thing that I can do is take down-ballot candidates who no one’s ever heard of and do my best to uplift them and increase the voter participation in a way that we did in Texas,” she said.
“You see, a lot of haters got a lot of things to say about me and my race and how I ran it,” Crockett continued. “But the reality is that there was a lot of racist, not a lot, it was racist. It was a racist race. It is what it is, right? But we live in America as y’all are celebrating 250. OK? We know what this country is. But let me tell you the facts. There is no race that turned out more people to vote ever in the state of Texas except for Barack [Obama] and Hillary [Clinton].”
Crockett launched her bid for Senate in 2025 and ultimately lost the Democratic nomination to Talarico, a state legislator. Talarico is now facing Republican Ken Paxton in the general election.
“Did you hear me?” she said during the podcast interview. “Literally, our Democratic nominee during a presidential year last term got 500,000 votes. I got over double that, and I still lost. So, so listen, I say this with all sincerity. I am doing my part.”
Crockett said she was treated unfairly in the race.
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“The reality is that people hold me to a completely different standard,” she said. “The fact is, we have never seen anybody, quote unquote, be pressured to jump into a Senate race to help out their opponent that beat them, ever. This is the first time we have ever seen this in this country. And it just so happens that it ended up being a high-profile Black woman.”
“I am nobody’s footstool, but I believe in doing everything that I can for the betterment specifically, not to the detriment of anybody else, but specifically for Black people,” Crockett added. “And I am committed to that. I will continue to do that work.”
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Earlier in her remarks, Crockett responded to people telling her to join Talarico at campaign events.
“People keep trying to say, ‘Well, Jasmine has to go and hold his hand.’ No, I don’t,” she said.
“And don’t worry about my math and how it works in my mind,” Crockett continued. “Because the reality is that if you can give people more than one thing to vote for, then you have a better chance of getting them out to the polls.”
